1. Field of the Invention
The field of the present invention is sharpeners for hand held safety razors.
2. Background
Hand held safety razors used for shaving hair from the human body generally include a razor head attached to handle. The razor head generally includes one or more individual blades, with multiple blades being arranged in parallel, and is frequently pivotally attached to the handle. Typically, the razor blades are capable of a maximum of between four and twelve close shaves, and sometimes more depending on the coarseness of the hair being shaved. Thereafter the cutting edge of the blade becomes so dull that the user must either change blades, or in the case of disposable razors, discard the dull razor for a new one.
Sharpeners for hand held safety razors are known in the prior art. A hand operated sharpener is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,036,731, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference in its entirety, which greatly extended the useful life of hand held razors. Although effective, the hand operation of this sharpener requires stroking a hand held razor fore and aft in precise motions, similar to the motion of shaving a human face, in order to achieve the best results.
An automated sharpener is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,506,106, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference in its entirety. This automated sharpener is essentially an device which mechanizes the fore and aft strokes of the previous hand held sharpener. Automation of the sharpening process reduces the amount of time needed for sharpening and makes the process more consistent. While this automated process presents a significant advance over the manual sharpener, the basic sharpening method is essentially the same for both the manual and automated method. In addition, the motorized portion of the automated sharpener makes the overall device somewhat bulky, generally larger, and possibly more expensive than necessary.